In the beginning of the game, Des rubbed several of his tribemates the wrong way with his lazy and rude demeanour, which caused him to become socially isolated. Despite attempting to prove his worth by helping with shelter construction, his lack of social bonds resulted in him being the first voted out.

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Des is a courier driver and a classic Aussie bloke who loves to have a laugh. He is a loyal man who has been married for 37 years. Des boasts that he will surprise his fellow Australian Survivor contestants with his brains. His game plan is to observe and befriend his fellow tribe mates and then ultimately become the puppet master, pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Des says: "I intend to make some big moves because the meek may inherit the Earth, but they don't win Australian Survivor. In the game, my word is glass. It's meant to be broken in case of fire."

Straight-talking Des talks a big game.

He says: "I'm born to play a villainous game. If they don't get rid of me first, they are gonna be in trouble."

Des was a Sergeant in the Australian Army for seven years and has experience living in tough conditions. Since leaving the army he has worked in a variety of different industries including automapping, computing, pest control and publishing, and says: "I don't look like the smartest bloke but I've actually got a few brains."

A family man with three daughters, Des has been happily married for 37 years to Caroline, whom he affectionately calls "The Queen". When he told his wife he was leaving the family behind to compete in Australian Survivor, she had one piece of advice: "Don't come home without the bacon." Having quality time with his family is very important to Des and winning the half million dollar prize money would go towards helping his daughters get the best start in life.

Australian Survivor

Des started off the game on the red Aganoa tribe. Almost instantly Des started rubbing his tribemates the wrong way when he simultaneously insisted on pointing out everything the tribe was doing wrong, but refused to help do it the right way. He claimed that his time in the army had given him knowledge of many useful skills that would make him useful to the tribe.

After Kat Dumont took on a leadership position and started dictating the tribe, Des became annoyed at being bossed around by a younger contestant. He continued to ostracize himself by refusing to sleep with the rest of the tribe in the shelter on the first night. At the first Immunity Challenge of the season, Des was placed on the puzzle station along with rival Kat. Their inability to work together lead to Aganoa losing the challenge.

Although Des was an obvious target, he didn't give up and began to target Kat for her bossiness. He also began to help a lot more around camp, and helped the tribe build a successful shelter after their old one had been destroyed by the rain. Although some of his tribemates seriously considered keeping Des, especially when the possibility of an all-women's alliance was brought up, his new burst of energy ended up being too little too late, and Des was the first person voted out of the game, and was so unanimously.

Des was referenced in the following episode when Evan Jones mentioned that like Des, Kristie Bennett had trouble fitting in and was becoming a potential target for similar reasons.